Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Willie Allen
October 31, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Rhonda Haygood and Patti Hannah
(Also present are: His wife, Geneva Allen
and two of his daughters,
Benita Logsdon and Sherry Allen)
Clip 7
Willie Allen: But after segregation was lifted then it got that much better, you know. We could get a better job and better everything, you know. Go where you wanted. You was free to go anyplace you wanted to go and that was, that was a big change, you know. Ever since I accepted Christ and got in the church, I wanted to, the more I read the Bible and the more I learned I wanted a church that believed the Bible. When I first joined this little Hopewell Methodist Church, that’s where I was converted at, we had one preacher, the one I was converted under. He was a good preacher. Oh, we was, loved to go to church. His wife started Sunday school and everything. And they sent him to Congress and didn’t send him back. Sent us somebody else. They sent us a preacher that, ewww boy, he didn’t want to do nothing but poke the young girls and drink liquor with the stewards around the church and I just quit going to church. I didn’t want no more of that. But I kept reading the Bible and wanting a church that would believe the Bible. Well my wife, she was a Missionary Baptist. She went to church down at Cloverdale and there we was then, we moved to Sheffield. I was living there on East 19th Street and she couldn’t drive then, so I’d have to carry her to church every once in a while down there. I wouldn’t take her every Sunday. Sometimes I worked, I rotated shifts at Reynolds the whole time I worked. And she started going down the street. She wanted to go to church ‘cause she was raised up in church, you know. And she starts going to the Church of Christ. She could walk down the street and take the children to the Church of Christ. And she’d say, “Now I went to church. I went with the Church of Christ.” And I, “Oh, Lord.” I didn’t want my children growing up in the Church of Christ. So I started, I went on to making haste then where I’d take my wife to church on Sunday and I joined with her down there at that Missionary Baptist Church. And we went to church down there for, oh, a long time, years. But, ah, I didn’t like the doctrine of the Church of Christ, so I didn’t want my children growing up in the Church of Christ. So that Baptist Church down there still, they didn’t believe the Bible like I wanted them to, I mean like I wanted to believe it. So I was sitting here one day in there in the den there with the T.V. on; I was scanning the channels and I ran across Highland Baptist Church on T.V. I didn’t know nothing about Highland, so I said, “Hmm. This looks like a pretty good church program.” I set and I watched it. Brother Sammy Gilbreath was preaching. I said, “Hmm. That seems like a pretty good church there.” I said, “That’s right here in North Florence, too.” I said, “I wonder is it for real. Is it really that sure enough?” So next Sunday I got up and I went to Highland. Just me. And I walked in that sanctuary and when I stepped in there the people greeted me and made me feel so welcome and everything. So I said, “Boy, this may be, this church may be all right sure enough, you know.” And one of the old men he enrolled me in his Sunday school class, first time he saw me. He said, “I’m gonna put you in my Sunday school class.” I said, “I ain’t no member here.” He said, “That don’t make no difference. I’m gonna sign you up in my Sunday class.” So that next Sunday I got up and I went to Highland and I went to his Sunday class. And I’ve been going to Sunday school at Highland ever since. That’s been, I don’t know, twelve or thirteen or fourteen years ago, I guess.
Geneva Allen: I can’t even calculate. It’s been a good long while.
WA: But I went to Highland a long time before I joined. I’d go every Sunday. Go to Sunday school and Worship service. And I liked what I was hearing. The preacher and the leadership of the church, they, seemed like they believed the Bible and they taught the Bible. And I joined under Brother Gil McKee. He was there when I joined. And of course I was there then the time that Brother Carter and Brother Sewell was preaching for us. They’s trying to get a pastor and they got through that okay. And then when they got Brother John, that just like putting icing on the cake. Brother John came in there telling us, “I’m gonna tell you what the Bible says. If you like it, okay. If you don’t, it don’t make me—.” Oh, that was the man I had been looking for all my life and I have enjoyed working as a deacon under Brother John better than I have any pastor I ever worked with. And I’ve enjoyed Highland Church more than I have any church because they teach you what the Bible says. They teach you the truth. So that’s how I got to Highland Baptist Church. And since I’ve been there I’ve been, I’ve made a lot of friends and now I’m teaching a Sunday school class myself. I teach the video class. All men. Some of them younger than me. Some of them older than me. But I love every one of them. They the best friends I believe I ever made. So we get along just fine, you know. So I love going to church. I look forward to going and teaching my Sunday school class and going to Worship service at Highland Baptist Church. So I guess that’s—
GA: That’s your story?
WA: My life on, when I was little on up till now. But I’ve heard people say, “Well, if you could go over your life again what would you change?” I said, “Well, I, a lot of things in my life that I did that I don’t like,” I said, “but I wouldn’t change a thing. You know, because I said, “If I change something I may not be who I am now. So. I like myself today and I wouldn’t want it to be no other way.

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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Willie Allen
October 31, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Rhonda Haygood and Patti Hannah
(Also present are: His wife, Geneva Allen
and two of his daughters,
Benita Logsdon and Sherry Allen)
Clip 7
Willie Allen: But after segregation was lifted then it got that much better, you know. We could get a better job and better everything, you know. Go where you wanted. You was free to go anyplace you wanted to go and that was, that was a big change, you know. Ever since I accepted Christ and got in the church, I wanted to, the more I read the Bible and the more I learned I wanted a church that believed the Bible. When I first joined this little Hopewell Methodist Church, that’s where I was converted at, we had one preacher, the one I was converted under. He was a good preacher. Oh, we was, loved to go to church. His wife started Sunday school and everything. And they sent him to Congress and didn’t send him back. Sent us somebody else. They sent us a preacher that, ewww boy, he didn’t want to do nothing but poke the young girls and drink liquor with the stewards around the church and I just quit going to church. I didn’t want no more of that. But I kept reading the Bible and wanting a church that would believe the Bible. Well my wife, she was a Missionary Baptist. She went to church down at Cloverdale and there we was then, we moved to Sheffield. I was living there on East 19th Street and she couldn’t drive then, so I’d have to carry her to church every once in a while down there. I wouldn’t take her every Sunday. Sometimes I worked, I rotated shifts at Reynolds the whole time I worked. And she started going down the street. She wanted to go to church ‘cause she was raised up in church, you know. And she starts going to the Church of Christ. She could walk down the street and take the children to the Church of Christ. And she’d say, “Now I went to church. I went with the Church of Christ.” And I, “Oh, Lord.” I didn’t want my children growing up in the Church of Christ. So I started, I went on to making haste then where I’d take my wife to church on Sunday and I joined with her down there at that Missionary Baptist Church. And we went to church down there for, oh, a long time, years. But, ah, I didn’t like the doctrine of the Church of Christ, so I didn’t want my children growing up in the Church of Christ. So that Baptist Church down there still, they didn’t believe the Bible like I wanted them to, I mean like I wanted to believe it. So I was sitting here one day in there in the den there with the T.V. on; I was scanning the channels and I ran across Highland Baptist Church on T.V. I didn’t know nothing about Highland, so I said, “Hmm. This looks like a pretty good church program.” I set and I watched it. Brother Sammy Gilbreath was preaching. I said, “Hmm. That seems like a pretty good church there.” I said, “That’s right here in North Florence, too.” I said, “I wonder is it for real. Is it really that sure enough?” So next Sunday I got up and I went to Highland. Just me. And I walked in that sanctuary and when I stepped in there the people greeted me and made me feel so welcome and everything. So I said, “Boy, this may be, this church may be all right sure enough, you know.” And one of the old men he enrolled me in his Sunday school class, first time he saw me. He said, “I’m gonna put you in my Sunday school class.” I said, “I ain’t no member here.” He said, “That don’t make no difference. I’m gonna sign you up in my Sunday class.” So that next Sunday I got up and I went to Highland and I went to his Sunday class. And I’ve been going to Sunday school at Highland ever since. That’s been, I don’t know, twelve or thirteen or fourteen years ago, I guess.
Geneva Allen: I can’t even calculate. It’s been a good long while.
WA: But I went to Highland a long time before I joined. I’d go every Sunday. Go to Sunday school and Worship service. And I liked what I was hearing. The preacher and the leadership of the church, they, seemed like they believed the Bible and they taught the Bible. And I joined under Brother Gil McKee. He was there when I joined. And of course I was there then the time that Brother Carter and Brother Sewell was preaching for us. They’s trying to get a pastor and they got through that okay. And then when they got Brother John, that just like putting icing on the cake. Brother John came in there telling us, “I’m gonna tell you what the Bible says. If you like it, okay. If you don’t, it don’t make me—.” Oh, that was the man I had been looking for all my life and I have enjoyed working as a deacon under Brother John better than I have any pastor I ever worked with. And I’ve enjoyed Highland Church more than I have any church because they teach you what the Bible says. They teach you the truth. So that’s how I got to Highland Baptist Church. And since I’ve been there I’ve been, I’ve made a lot of friends and now I’m teaching a Sunday school class myself. I teach the video class. All men. Some of them younger than me. Some of them older than me. But I love every one of them. They the best friends I believe I ever made. So we get along just fine, you know. So I love going to church. I look forward to going and teaching my Sunday school class and going to Worship service at Highland Baptist Church. So I guess that’s—
GA: That’s your story?
WA: My life on, when I was little on up till now. But I’ve heard people say, “Well, if you could go over your life again what would you change?” I said, “Well, I, a lot of things in my life that I did that I don’t like,” I said, “but I wouldn’t change a thing. You know, because I said, “If I change something I may not be who I am now. So. I like myself today and I wouldn’t want it to be no other way.